Figure 6. Schematic representation of hypothetical flow of visual information through parallel sensorimotor processes to produce observed behaviour .

Relative motion of self and environment gives visual rotation signal that is fed through three parallel pathways. Route 1 is the fastest passing simply through a visual motion threshold process to evoke a positive response that accelerates the body in the direction of visual rotation. Route 2 is slower as visual rotation is processed together with non‐visual sensory signals and prior information to estimate the likely contributions of environment and self‐motion. If accumulation of evidence for environment motion passes through a threshold then a negative response is evoked which accelerates the body in the opposite direction to visual rotation. These two routes aid the balance system by rapidly identifying and minimising unintended body motion in a bang–bang controller fashion. Route 3 is the slowest with visual rotation being processed together with vestibular rotation, i.e. from semicircular canals, to disambiguate the gravito‐inertial sensory signals, for example from otoliths, to arrive at an estimate of gravity direction. This route aids the postural system by providing a gravitational reference for aligning the body.